Soenke Kunkel is Professor of North American History at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin. His publications include two edited volumes and numerous essays on U.S. foreign policy. He was research fellow at the universities of Oxford, Harvard, Ohio State, and Jacobs University Bremen.

• List of FiguresPrefaceList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Why Empires Need PicturesPART I: THE RISE OF THE VISUAL AGEChapter 1. The Picture State and Its InnovatorsChapter 2. Contact Points with Empire and the Globalizing of MediaPART II: PICTURING EMPIREChapter 3. Prosperity: Official Visits to the United StatesChapter 4. Progress: Popular Aspirations, the Global South, and the Politics of ImaginationChapter 5. Peace: Space Flights as "Pictorial Acts"Chapter 6. Power: Global Media and the Other History of the Vietnam WarConclusion: From Nixon to Obama, or: The Legacy of the 1960sEndnotesBibliographyIndex

"Kunkel provides an empirically grounded framework for understanding the United States as an imperial power that cultivated recognition through pictures." Diplomatic History"...a perceptive and well-researched tour of how political leaders realized the utility of the picture and made conscious efforts to take advantage of its power." American Historical Review